Huntsman compares GOP to communist China

In an appearance at the 92nd Street Y in which he was interviwed by Jeff Greenfield, Huntsman compared the GOP to China's communist party, failed to let words escape his mouth about his support for Mitt Romney (nodding instead that he still backs him) and echoed the Democratic talking point that Ronald Reagan would "likely not" get elected in the current, hard-right Republican party:

Huntsman, the former Utah governor and once President Barack Obama's Ambassador to China, expressed disappointment that the Republican Party disinvited him from a Florida fundraiser in March after he publicly called for a third party.

"This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script," he said.

The problem with public venting by former candidates is that it's, well, public. Huntsman, who's in the midst of his own public image rehab, clearly feels that he was stunted by a party that's been swayed by the tea party over the last three years - and does not blame his own performance as a candidate.

And while he says he believes Romney would be better than President Obama, the man who tapped him to be Ambassador to China, after reading Miller's dispatch, it's not hard to imagine Huntsman announcing sometime in the fall that he is no longer with Romney.